I visited a company (who will remain nameless to protect the innocent) the other day who, although doing the everyday stuff OK, seemed toĀ have no business direction or worse still,Ā any strategy aimed at the future. We discussed some possible innovative ideas and some new ways the company might market itself but I couldn’t check any of these against my first innovation question “does it fit with strategy?”. All I got was silence and “well we might do this, or that”. The whole experience served to remind me how difficult it is to create meaningful innovation in a strategic vacuum. It can work but only if the company has a single decision maker in charge of the business who can decide if the innovation is what he or she wants. Otherwise, it is very easy to go around in ever decreasing circles, eventually disappearing in a puff of obsolescence.